


the eyes of the blind

by blackwell



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers Tower, Dating, Domestic Avengers, Established Relationship, F/M, Long-Term Relationship(s), Past Relationship(s), Relationship(s), Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Tony Stark Does What He Wants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-23 01:26:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2528918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackwell/pseuds/blackwell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>B-side of <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2394983">i go walking in my sleep</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the eyes of the blind

**Author's Note:**

> Please excuse the weirdness that is having Clint's canon wife as his stepdaughter's girlfriend. I couldn't resist.

Kim Lewis has, as they say, lived a life.

Her mother was a circus stunt rider, as was her mother before her. Kim herself might have been the best of them all if it hadn’t been for that broken leg when she was nineteen.

She studied art at NYU. She married a man with a job you couldn’t talk about in public. She had a daughter. She divorced. She started dating a national icon who looked at her like he was her beleaguered puppy dog.

In spite of all that, though, she’s pretty sure that in terms of high-drama situations, this one takes the cake.

Her boyfriend is looking at her like she’s grown another head. So is her ex-husband. And her daughter’s best friend has her phone in her hand and, with a gleeful look on her face, is texting someone.

“Jane, _do not_ text Darcy.”

Jane gives her a sheepish smile. “Too late.”

Tony Stark, who is unsurprisingly also smiling, holds up his hands. “Wait, wait, wait. Steve is dating Phil’s ex?”

“So it would seem,” Pepper says, but even Kim, who doesn’t know her that well, can tell that what she really means is _calm down_.

Tony, however, is starting to look like Christmas has come early. “Phil’s ex, who’s also Darcy’s _mom_? How did we miss this?” He laughs (rather maniacally, Kim thinks) and Phil presses his lips together in his signature disapproving frown.

“Stark. Pull yourself together, please.”

At that moment, the doorbell rings. Between gasps of laughter, Tony manages to get out, “Who is it, JARVIS?”

The doorbell rings two more times in quick succession. “It’s Miss Lewis, sir.”

“Send her up,” Tony says, and Kim glares at Jane. She likes the young woman, she really does, but she can tell when her daughter’s friends are ganging up on her.

Seriously, Darcy must have been deliberately lurking in the neighborhood in order to get here this quickly. She waltzes through the door with her bag in one hand and her phone in the other, and she cackles when she sees the confusion on all of their faces. 

“It’s happened,” she says, adopting a very passable supervillain voice. “My evil plans have come to fruition at last.”

“Honey, I swear to God, if you planned this…”

Kim never finishes her sentence, because Darcy catches Tony’s eyes, and they both dissolve into such a fit of laughter that she can’t hear her own words anymore.

~

Later, lying in bed with Steve, she finally admits to herself that this is a problem that has to be addressed. “I’m sorry,” she says, quietly. “This must be terribly awkward for you, finding out that you’re dating your boss’s ex.”

“Did you know?” he asks her, reaching up towards the pillow on which her hand is resting. He traces over her knuckles with a single finger, and she knows then that he isn’t angry.

“That Phil was your boss? No. I knew he worked for SHIELD, but I had no idea in what capacity. Frankly, I’m rather impressed.”

“You should be. Phil’s a great agent—one of the best. I don’t see how I can compete.”

She snorts. “Are you kidding me? You’re _Captain America_.” She considers for a moment what Phil might say if he were to find out his idol didn’t think he could live up to his standards, but her imagination fails her.

“Seriously, though, Steve—it’s over between me and Phil. You don’t have anything to worry about. If you were worried, that is.”

“I wasn’t,” he says, and now, at last, he takes hold of her hand properly. “I trust you.” He makes a face. “I think we might have permanently broken Darcy and Tony, though.”

“Darcy just wishes she’d masterminded the whole thing.”

“She takes after you.”

Kim hums. “She does.”

Steve rolls back against the pillows, still holding her hand. She snuggles into his side as he says, “Never tell Tony I said this, but it is kind of funny.”

“Oh, come on, I have to tell Tony you said that! It would make his entire year.”

“I’m sorry to have to do this,” he says, mock-serious, and reaches under her arms.

“Steve, how many times do I have to tell you that I’m not ticklish?”

He heaves a sigh. “It’s so unfair.”

She lifts her head up from the pillow to press a kiss against his lips. “I know.”

~

Darcy might not have been the mastermind behind the disaster that was dinner at Avengers Tower, but she recovers admirably from this failure.

Within a month, she has begun a tradition that she refers to as “Messed-Up-Family Dinners,” and Kim finds herself spending her Friday nights on a slo-mo restaurant tour of New York, accompanied by her boyfriend, her daughter, her ex-husband, and his current husband. Since everyone else in that group is either too busy or too disorganized to reliably make reservations, that becomes her responsibility.

When Darcy calls one Thursday night to tell her to get a table for six, she doesn’t think anything of it. She assumes she’s bringing Jane.

But Darcy shows up to the restaurant that night with a woman who is decidedly not Jane Foster.

The stranger has a hard face and harder eyes. She wears glasses with wireless frames that Kim thinks make her look rather severe.

“Mom, Dad, Stepdad, Stepdad,” Darcy begins, and Kim can see right through her bravado. “This is my girlfriend, Bobbi.”

“Nice to meet y’all,” she says. She has her phone in one hand and is tapping it against the palm of the other. Kim is not sure she likes her. 

They all sit down around the table, and Steve says, “I’ve seen you around SHIELD, haven’t I?”

Phil clears his throat. “That might not be the best subject to discuss.”

Clint laughs a little. “So what do you do, Bobbi, outside of whatever it is you do for SHIELD?”

“I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry,” she says, but Kim suspects that’s only part of the story.

Bobbi Morse has a hard face and harder eyes. But her hand is gentle when it takes Darcy’s, and Kim is inclined to be forgiving.

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](http://blackwellwrites.tumblr.com/), if you're interested.


End file.
